Public HealthPolitics and health outcomes
Section snippets
Political traditions and redistributive policies
Within the group of OECD countries examined in this study, those mainly governed by social democratic parties for the majority of the period under study (1950–2000) are Sweden (for 45 years), Norway (39 years), Denmark (35 years), Finland (32 years), and Austria (31 years).13, 14, 15, 16 (See webpanel for a list of parties.) The social democratic parties in these countries have historically been committed to redistributive policies (the average Gini coefficient in this group over the last 10
Effects of political traditions on health outcomes
Once the countries were thus grouped by political tradition, we analysed the relation between cumulative years of government by each political tradition and changes in two key health outcomes—infant mortality and life expectancy at birth. This analysis was done for the years for which health indicators were available for all countries. It was also restricted to long periods of homogeneous government, since short periods of government might not have a measurable effect on populations' health
Political influence over health outcomes
What are the mechanisms by which ruling political parties determine public policy, including health policy, and in turn influence health outcomes? We devised a heuristic framework (figure) involving pathways from politics, to public policy, income distribution, and the selected health indicators. According to this model, specific welfare state and labour market policies characterise each political tradition, and these are the main mechanisms by which politics acts on health outcomes. Other
Do politics matter in health policy?
Our findings supplement studies in health economics on the effects of redistributive policies on health,22, 23 by adding a political component. Our analysis suggests that political parties with egalitarian ideologies tend to implement redistributive policies. But the connection between ideology, social class constituency, and implementation of particular policies is complex, as can be seen from the fact that, during the past 30 years, many countries governed by social democratic parties have
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